t
grips with the English. The struggle was obstinate on both sides; it
began at six in the morning of June 24, 1340, and lasted to midday. It
was put an end to by the arrival of the re-enforcements promised by the
Flemings to the King of England. "The deputies of Bruges," says their
historian, "had employed the whole night in getting under way an armament
of two hundred vessels, and, before long, the French heard echoing about
them the horns of the Flemish mariners sounding to quarters." These
latter decided the victory, Behuchet, Philip of Valois' treasurer, fell
into their hands; and they, heeding only their desire of avenging
themselves for the devastation of Cadsand (in 1337), hanged him from the
mast of his vessel "out of spite to the King of France." The admiral,
Hugh Quieret, though he surrendered, was put to death; "and with him
perished so great a number of men-at-arms that the sea was dyed with
blood on this coast, and the dead were put down at quite thirty thousand
men."

The very day after the battle, the Queen of England came from Ghent to
join the king her husband, whom his wound confined to his ship; and at
Valenciennes, whither the news of the victory speedily arrived,
Artevelde, mounting a platform set up in the market-place, maintained, in
the presence of a large crowd, the right which the King of England had to
claim the kingdom of France. He vaunted "the puissance of the three
countries, Flanders, Hainault, and Brabant, when at one accord amongst
themselves, and what with his words and his great sense," says Froissart,
"he did so well that all who heard him said that he had spoken mighty
well, and with mighty experience, and that he was right worthy to govern
the countship of Flanders." From Valenciennes he repaired to King Edward
at Bruges, where all the allied princes were assembled; and there, in
concert with the other deputies from the Flemish communes, Artevelde
offered Edward a hundred thousand men for the vigorous prosecution of the
war. "All these burghers," says the modern historian of the Flemings,
"had declared that, in order to promote their country's cause, they would
serve without pay, so heartily had they entered into the war." The siege
of Tournay was the first operation Edward resolved to undertake. He had
promised to give this place to the Flemings; the burghers were getting a
taste for conquest, in company with kings.

They found Philip of Valois better informed, and als